All nicely rested
and ready to fill our minds with lots of info on Trip Leading and Preparation,
Convoy Procedures and Radio Coms, Sunday morning saw a lot of club members with
chairs, tables, the obligatory eskies of course (and some of us even had
notepads and pens at the ready) pile into Dean’s “Donegal Road Shed”.
Immediately upon arrival, I was directed to the back of the workshop and told I could place my chair and belongings in the corner. There was a white board on this particular wall that quite clearly labelled this area as the NAUGHTY CORNER!!!! Gee I thought that was a bit mean as I’d been on my best behaviour so far. Well at least for about 5 minutes. Still I‘ve been told Dean is like a boy scout and always likes to Be Prepared. Gerry must have at some stage been considering joining me as he was overheard asking the question “If I also sit in the corner, does that mean I get a Naughty??? “….Go figure!
A very informal, relaxed workshop was presented by Stuart with heaps of good ideas and suggestions and a lot of positive feedback and discussion from the group. Thank goodness for all of the years in the military where he had to learn to talk over the top of anything and make himself heard as Hewey was sending that rain down hard on the shed roof and he managed to give it a good run for it’s money.
Hopefully we’ll have a lot of members just dying to get in there and give it a go!!!
A nice lunch was had
by all, and then it was into the cars to do a little practical follow-up on what
had been gleaned earlier on. Stuart and I had a nice little trip organised and
plotted into the In Car Navigational “STUFF” but unfortunately were thwarted
before we even got out of the car park as our laptop decided to spit the dummy
and blow a fuse. Fortunately Gerry had a copy of the route so jumped to fore
front and headed off as TL.
A beaut drive and all was going well until we noticed as we rounded a bend that Gerry’s rear tyre was looking kind of flat. All hands on deck, some helping to change the tyre, some critiquing it, some offering advice, some taking photos, (You can never let a chance go by), some heckling, laughing and just plain pulling the p---- out of him. Poor Gerry! I hear you all saying. Don’t feel sorry for him yet…..There’s still more to come. Read on….
With the tyre changed, we were all ready to head off again when Lenny Tonkin advised there were some good tracks up ahead and did we want to go on them? Sounded like a good plan, so with Lenny navigating from a bit further back we once again were on the road. So much for a nice CLEAN drive today. Thanks to the rain earlier on, these tracks had turned a tad muddy, wet and slippery. From all of us, some who had previously spent 3 days cleaning and detailing their vehicles, we say “THANKS LENNY “ and salute you. One was heard to say something along the lines of “Daddy doesn’t like a Dirty Jeep, and we know where you live and something about bricks and a roof.” I wonder what that was all about??
Further on towards the end of the track, our illustrious TL, whilst trying to execute a left turn – with pike.., ended up being a burbling beasty roadblock! Nothing for it but to pull him out…Too Easy. How hard could it be?
Gerry couldn’t get
to his snatch strap as it was in the back of the car which had it’s rear end in
a big body of water, Stuart had removed ours the week or so earlier when we
turfed everything out of the car in preparation for our Son’s Wedding, Greg had
removed everything from his vehicle as poor “Percy” was going into the car
hospital the next day, but don’t despair there were another 10 vehicles in the
convoy and Chris and Dianne very kindly produced their’s and gave him a tug
out. Needless to say there was another round of camera’s clicking and flashing.
Now you can say, “Poor Gerry”.
The rest of the trip back was uneventful and saw some of the party spearing off along the way and heading home and the rest going back to Donegal Road where we enjoyed a nice BBQ Tea.
A very big Thankyou to Dean and Jan for the use of the shed to conduct our workshop. (I’m sure Lenny B thanks you for the box in the loo too Dean!) And by the way Gerry never did get his Naughty! It just goes to show that corner is not all we’ve been led to believe.
Thank you to Stuart, for presenting such a good session. I’m sure the newer members of the club picked up a bit of knowledge, and idea’s they may not have thought of, and for the older, more crustier members of the club…some of us not so Old and Crusty yet, but we’re sure working on it….Occasional refreshing of that grey matter never hurt any of us.
TTFN.
Delta, Echo, November, India, Sierra, Echo.
That’s phonetically radio speak for Denise.
